The Man With The Masks
by random tennis chick
Summary: A young twenty-something gets enveloped in tragedy and ends up with all his friends dead. In vain, he tries making friends with everyone in Clock Town. He settles with the "man with the masks".


Man with the Masks

The man with the masks is creepy. He always has a bundle of character masks on his back. He has slit eyes and is usually smiling creepily, and when he's frowning he's still creepy, maybe creepier.

He just needs to calm down and actually make friends.

Everyone needs friends, a thing I found out once I got to Clock Town. I was by myself, but I soon met Darius, a Goron, Joe, a friend of the Mayor's, and Luke, a soldier. They soon became my wall to fall back on if I was ever needing someone. We always would go to the bar and just talk and hang out. They were my good friends.

Of course, all friends fade out eventually.

Darius moved back to the mountains to go perform some kind of sacrificial ceremony that ten gorons had to go through for whatever religion the Gorons had. Joe, who was the closest to Darius, traveled to the ocean in dismay and went on a cruise to clear his thoughts, soon killed by some Gerudos who didn't believe in taking male slaves. Luke, outraged, wanted to avenge Joe. I was saddened by Joe's death, but I knew that we could never take the Gerudos. Luke didn't hear me and headed off by himself. Of course, he was killed as well.

Just like that my friends were gone. My wall had crumbled. If I were to break down, I'd just fall beyond the ruins of the wall into an abysmal pit of despair and I'd never come back.

The only solution I had was to go looking for new friends, which I did.

I had tried to connect with the bartender that would always listen to my problems. He had just said that it was part of his job to listen to people talk "nonsense".

Then I went to Kafei. I had only known him through living at the inn and Anju, the inn-keeper, speak of him. At first we had a pretty good relationship. We even went to the little river to go fishing. But all he wanted to speak about was Anju and how he was going to marry her. The conversation he was having with himself went from "I love her so much" to "You better not get close to her or I will hunt you down". I knew that we couldn't be friends.

I had even tried to talk to the lead guitarist of that popular Zora band. I don't even know his name. The entire band was just at the bar one night and he and I started talking. He seemed pretty cool. He even promised to show me the ocean the next day, for I had no weapons and I was not to leave the city while he did have weapons and I've never gone to the ocean before. I was waiting at the gate of the city and he never came. We were not friends.

Just as I was loosing hope, I spied the man with the masks entering the clock tower suspiciously.

I wondered what he was doing, but I was not so intent on following him until I remembered I had no friends and that it may be good to go see what he's up to so I could talk to him.

I had my hand on the door to the clock tower when one of the builders shouted at me that I wasn't allowed to enter it. I shouted back that the man with the masks just went inside. (We were shouting back and forth because he was directly on top of the tower.) He shouted that he didn't hear me. I repeated what I had said louder, and again he said that he didn't hear me.

I shook my head in annoyance and walked off.

Since the Tower was in the Town Square, I went to the nearest building facing the Tower's entrance and sat against the building facing the Tower.

If I couldn't go in, I decided I'd wait for him to come out and then I'd talk to him.

A few people of the town just stared at me as they walked by.

Time went by and he never came out. When darkness came, I was still there, staring at the entrance.

When the builder that had shouted at me had gone to sleep, (apparently he lives on the tower) I slipped into the tower.

I had never been in the tower before, so it was strange for me to see that the inside was lit completely and there were no dark spots.

I went inside a bit deeper and I saw that there was an organ, believe it or not.

The man with the masks was playing it.

It was a dreary song that had some hope behind it.

I just stood behind the man as he played, watching his hands as he played. After about a minute he stopped.

The man with the masks asked me who I was. I replied with my name and asked him what his name was. He didn't reply and he didn't turn from the organ. I asked the man why he was in the clock tower. Again, he didn't reply.

The man asked me in a scary voice why I was taunting him.

I replied with a smile that I wasn't taunting him, only asking a question.

Within a second, the bench he was sitting on flew to the side, the man stood up, grabbed my neck, shoved me against the wall and stared me in the eyes.

I wondered vaguely how he could move with all of those masks on his back.

He demanded to know why I was there.

I replied, truthfully, that I wanted to talk to him and I wanted to be his friend.

One moment he was glaring at me and then he had his creepy smile like usual.

He called me his friend and said that if I was his friend that I'd get him a certain mask from the forest. He told me about it and I said that I wouldn't even be able to make it out of town because I didn't have a weapon.

He responded by going a bit farther in the tower and pulling a long sword out of a hole in the wall. He gave it to me and said that I should probably leave town soon.

I nodded and told him that I'd be back as soon as possible.

I left the tower wondering whether it was okay for me to speak with a crazy man and even promise to go out of town.

I dismissed my thoughts and left through the closest exit of the town. I was happy to see that the forest was straight ahead of me. I began running through the fields, dragging the sword on the ground. I wondered if it would matter if I left a trail through the imprint the sword made in the dirt.

Again I dismissed my thoughts and continued running.

Of course, I was out of breath by the time I got to the forest. I couldn't just have my friend waiting for me; the only way to get there was to run.

I saw a large wolf run at me, so, naturally, I swung the sword at it. The wolf seemed to disappear in the darkness of the night, so I just kept going.

In the next few minutes I found something that looked suspiciously like the man with the masks had told me about.

It was there, on a pedestal. A ray of light was hitting it.

There was no way I could mistake it.

The mask itself had a bit of a tribal feeling to it. It was like a face with spikes coming from it.

I shrugged. If a friend wanted it, I'd get it for them.

I walked up to the pedestal and lifted an arm out to grab it.

I suddenly fell on my back and had no idea what was happening. The familiar face of the man with the masks appeared.

He thanked "a friend for leaving a trail and getting the mask". He smiled creepily and once again thanked "a true friend".

I closed my eyes, never to open them again.

Stories always come with some kind of moral.

Never try to be friends with a crazy man with masks.


End file.
